This Week in Poker: #PokerLovesYou – It Just Rarely Shows It

Photo: WorldPokerTour.com

Topics: Epic Poker League, This Week in Poker

It has been an uphill battle cultivating a Valentine’s Day spirit in the offices of EpicPoker.com. With the holiday now behind us – and Hershey’s Easter Selection already on Walgreen’s shelves – I now understand why. Valentine’s Day (like Secretary’s Day, Farrier’s Day, and Roustabout’s Day) is a commercial holiday encouraging us to open our hearts to particular people. Poker players have a greater capacity for love than everybody else. It just doesn’t seem that way because poker players have to fade their love of poker plus the love we all possess for other people.

Lucky Hearts are Difficult to Find

Last night Matt Juttelstad showed tremendous poise and patience in winning the Main Event of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock in Florida. He clearly had the requisite skill, but also demonstrated an ability to withstand having poor play by opponents frustrate him on many occasions. A lot of more seasoned poker pros could learn a lot from this 24 year old. Watching the live stream, I didn’t see a single instance in which he reacted in any way other than to encourage his opponents to be comfortable with their inferior play (and therefore keep playing that way).

After Matt (and Gigi Gagne, who finished runner-up and clearly adapted her play to get heads-up), it would be hard to find many poker players on the scene feeling “lucky” or feeling loved by poker. Jonathan Little provided an example this week of how much we can love poker, and at the same time how difficult that can be. On February 8, Jonathan cashed for the third time this year – all wins! – by taking down the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’Em, the penultimate event at the Hard Rock.

Perhaps it was too much to wish for: another WPT title after three other wins in a month, but Little gave it a shot. After Day 2, he was right in the middle of the chip counts, with 34 players remaining. They paid 27.

It’s amazing how much of a story you can tell in Twitter’s 140 characters: “I lost every hand I played including a flip to bust in 28th. Leaving ASAP.”

Noah Schwartz tempted fate by playing the event even though he had been summoned for jury duty on Day 3. He made it with even more chips than Jonathan Little, but he had to sweat the phone call to find out whether citizenship trumped poker. Schwartz has already started 2012 in the money, winning in the Bahamas. He is also featured in this week’s second episode of Epic’s Mix-Max Championship on Velocity this Friday night. At the Hard Rock, he got his chips in good but lost on the river. In addition to describing the hand, he was able to express sarcasm within Twitter’s character limit: “Nice Valentines day present.”

Christian Harder, who finished 2011 on fire and has had great success on the WPT, lasted even longer at the Lucky Hearts Main Event, tweeting with 13 players left, “Officially going to miss my flight. Time to make the final table now.” He went out in 13th, 20 minutes later.

Little, Schwartz, and Harder are three of the best in the world, and signs point to a great 2012 for all three. All three will tell you they love poker – and that love hurts.

Who Else was in the Mood for Love?

Andrea Dato, one of the hottest poker players in Italy, can sympathize. He finished 3rd at the WPT Venice Grand Prix last week, one place better than his final-table finish at the WPT Venice event last December. He finished 3rd in a WSOP event in 2011, and 5th in an IPT event. He’s doing just well enough to be disappointed by some great results.

Somebody who puts in their time on the tournament circuit must get their love of the game returned occasionally, right? Yes, but it’s an unbelievably short list. Kurt Jewell, a 26-year old poker pro from Kentucky, won the WSOP Circuit event in Tunica. His prize for prevailing over 647 entries was $192,000 and a Circuit ring. It’s his second Circuit ring, the first being the Hammond Main Event way back in … October 2011. (The WSOP Circuit continues in Palm Beach on February 25-27.)

Kyle Julius, who finished runner-up at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure EPT Main Event in January, had a good week too. He won one of the big PokerStars Sunday events, good for another $177,000.

Everyone else is relegated to hoping poker loves them back, thinking that maybe poker loves them back, but is never sure. The increasingly hectic international tournament poker schedule suggests that’s all the encouragement poker has to provide to keep our love.

Jason Somerville Appeals to the Best in Poker Players

Yesterday, poker professional and WSOP bracelet winner Jason Somerville wrote in his blog how he had come to accept and embrace his being gay and, in a community as accepting as poker, felt it was time to declare his homosexuality publicly. I think Jason’s faith in the poker community is correct, and his acknowledgement will make poker everywhere better. He may give other people in poker – he points out that no high-profile male players have acknowledged being gay and that seems … against the odds – the courage to acknowledge their sexual preference, whether to others or just themselves. If anyone is likely to have a problem with it (and we have to allow for a few narrow-minded weirdoes in any community) let’s give them a chance to write it off to ignorance, which Jason’s honesty (and the support for his honesty throughout poker) will help combat.

Ongoing and Upcoming

Heartland Poker Tour just started its 8th season, finishing its Daytona Beach event earlier this week. Its next stop, in Quawpaw, Oklahoma February 25-26, will be its 99th. Expect HPT to blow the doors off the pair of St. Louis casinos hosting its 100th event March 8-11.

The Los Angeles Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino is marching toward its big-money conclusion, but don’t think the dozens of events preceding the $10,000 WPT event and other heavy action are going unnoticed. Jeff Madsen tweeted that he deep in an event at LAPC. It was the $550 Omaha-8 and, out of 105 entries, he found himself at a final table with Gioi Luong (7th place) and a couple of guys who have cashed a zillion times at the LAPC. Jeff couldn’t even flaunt his pair of bracelets; Men Nguyen, the Pete Rose of L.A. tournament poker, has 7. Nguyen finished 1st, Jeff 3rd. Jeff is clearly still hungry, and he’s getting the scent of the big money. I suspect all the time developing a leather ass in $500 events will serve him well in 60+ events at the World Series of Poker. It will provide a nice balance to seeing his face, 10-feet tall, every time he walks from the Rio casino to the Amazon Room.

Perhaps it will pay off even sooner. The LAPC closes in an orgy of big money events not seen in the U.S. since last summer. The WPT Main Event runs February 24-29, with the $25,000 High Roller on February 26-27. In total, there are 8 events with buy-ins of $1,600 or more between February 20 and February 27.

Palazzo’s first Deep Stack Extravaganza concludes in Las Vegas with its $2,500 Main Event February 19-21. In the 15 editions of the Deep Stack Extravaganza at the Venetian, 8 of the Main Event winners have gone on to qualify for the first season of Epic Poker. (Julian Thew (2008), Joanne Liu (2008), Eric Baldwin (2009), Nick Binger (2009), Tom Marchese (2010), Isaac Haxton (2010), Dmitry Gromov (2010), Scott Clements (2011)) Expect a tough field of 250-300 players, and someone worthy at the top when it’s over. EPT Copenhagen (February 19-25) will be the premiere European destination during late February.

Big-time poker will travel a predictable route in the next three weeks: from Las Vegas (Deep Stack Main Event Feb. 19-21), to L.A. (LAPC), to San Jose (Bay 101’s WPT Shooting Stars Mar. 5-9), and perhaps back to Vegas (Wynn Classic, starting Feb. 23 and ending with its $5,000 Championship Mar. 12-15).

All these players only think they’re chasing money. They’re really chasing love. Although poker will return that love only sparingly, that’s enough to keep us all going. That, and the chance of making a lot of money without having to punch a time-clock, wear a uniform, or get our hands covered with oil, splinters, paint, fish guts, or blood.

But mostly love.